[593] the present to those families that were in immediate want of assistance. August 15th, It was ordered by the aldermen that a joint special committee be appointed to consider and report what action was necessary on the part of the city government in relation to Chelsea soldiers who had lost their lives in the late battle with the rebels at Bull Run. Aldermen Boynton, Churchill, and Bisbee were appointed on the part of the board, and on the 2d of September the order having been concurred in, Messrs. Hadaway, Pearmain, and Buck were appointed on the part of the common council. It was also ordered that State aid be continued to the families of the soldiers who had fallen or died in the battle of Bull Run. September 16th, The joint committee appointed at the previous meeting reported in favor of the adoption of resolutions passed by a citizens' meeting held on the 29th of July. The report was accepted, and the following resolutions were adopted and entered upon the records of the city:—
Whereas the government and citizens of Chelsea having received intelligence of the death on the field of battle at Bull Run, Va., of Philander Crowell, Jr., Thomas Needham, Thomas Harding, James H. Murphy, and George Bacon, members of Company H, Chelsea volunteers; it is hereby— Resolved, That it is eminently due, alike to the noble cause for which our young heroes have fallen, to the universal sense of justice and gratitude, to the natural and spontaneous emotions of the hour, and especially to the feelings of the relatives and friends of the gallant dead, and of their surviving comrades on the field, that the community under whose endorsement and protection these patriot soldiers went forth to encounter the hardships and the perils of war should publicly commemorate that heroism and fidelity which have been thus sadly and yet gloriously sealed in death. Resolved, That while such patriotic exercise of the best faculties of the American citizen soldier, and such devotion of life to that common cause whose grandeur no partial reverses or temporary defeats can diminish or obscure, are sacrifices to which the highest worth and the most exalted character in the land pay tribute, while the country, majestic even in her sorrow, confers upon all her defenders ‘the sweet rewards that decorate the brave,’ it should be our special duty and pride to render reverently the last homage, and to perform
